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Thursday, November 14, 2013

Just Say No to Kidz Bop on Sirius XM Radio

Imagine my surprise and horror when I was flipping through my Sirius/XM Radio channels today and
discovered they'd added a new children's radio station - Kidz Bop! All Kidz Bop all the time! GAG CHOKE!

I hope my children do not discover this channel. It's bad enough that they fell in love with the one Kidz Bop CD that my oldest chickadee received as a gift at her 8th birthday party and proceeded to play it continuously for months. Then she hosted several dance performances for us at home, complete with disco lights, my black knee-high boots, party girl clothes and questionable dance moves. Yes, it's all innocent fun, but YIKES! My husband and I snuck scared glances at each other throughout the dance show.

Kidz Bop is a gateway drug into the more insidious pop culture with bad music, fashion and 'role models'. I'm not ready. Nope. I insist that my kids listen to Kids Place Live as long as possible. Fun lyrics, stories, lessons, laughter and the sound of childhood.

In the car lately, we're back to listening to my all time childhood fave - Free to Be You and Me - 1972. Girl power! Why rush them to grow up to feel objectified with low values and self esteem? It starts with music, I say!

One of my all-time favorite poems/songs on the Free to Be You and Me CD is Housework by Carol Channing. Maybe this song is why I'm such a non-conformist, undomesticated, uninterested housekeeper as a grownup. As a side note, I played this song for my mother-in-law several years ago and she disagreed with it and said that she LOVED doing housework. Sigh.

Housework by Carol Channing:

You know, there are times when we happen to be
Just sitting there, quietly watching TV,
When the program we're watching will stop for a while
And suddenly someone appears with a smile,
And starts to show us how terribly urgent
It is to buy some brand of detergent,
Or soap or cleanser or cleaner or powder or paste or wax or bleach,
To help with the housework.

Now, most of the time it's a lady we see,
Who's doing the housework on TV.
She's cheerfully scouring a skillet or two,
Or she's polishing pots till they gleam like new,
Or she's scrubbing the tub or she's mopping the floors,
Or she's wiping the stains from the walls and the doors,
Or she's washing the windows, the dishes, the clothes,
Or waxing the furniture till it just glows,
Or cleaning the fridge or the stove or the sink,
With a light-hearted smile, and a friendly wink,
And she's doing her best to make us think
The her soap, or detergent or cleanser or cleaner or powder or paste or wax or bleach,
Is the best kind of soap, or detergent or cleanser or cleaner or powder or paste or wax or bleach,
That there is in the whole wide world.
And, maybe it is, and maybe it isn't,
And maybe it does what they say it will do,
But I'll tell you one thing I know is true.
The lady we see when we're watching TV,
The lady who smiles as she scours or scrubs or rubs or washes or wipes or mops or dusts or cleans,
Or whatever she does on our TV screens,
That lady is smiling because she's an actress,
And she's earning money for learning those speeches
That mention those wonderful soaps and detergents and cleansers and cleaners and powders and pastes and waxes and bleaches.

So, the very next time you happen to be
Just sitting there quietly watching TV,
And you see some nice lady who smiles
As she scours or scrubs or rubs or washes or wipes or mops or dusts or cleans,
Remember, nobody smiles doing housework but those ladies you see on TV.
Your mommy hates housework,
Your daddy hates housework,
I hate housework too.
And when you grow up, so will you.
Because even if the soap or cleanser or cleaner or powder or paste or wax or bleach
That you use is the very best one,
Housework is just no fun.

Children, when you have a house of your own,
Make sure, when there's house work to do,
That you don't have to do it alone.
Little boys, little girls, when you're big husbands and wives,
If you want all the days of your lives
To seem sunny as summer weather,
Make sure, when there's housework to do,
That you do it together!